Numbers of people have asked me how to design my popular Mini Pixel Icon pack. In fact, they are relatively easy. All you need is just some basic Photoshop skills. Here I will show you how to use the Pencil tool to design pixel icons, and then re-use them to create a full collection. This is the technique that I used to create over 320 icons within a day.

1. Create a new document

In Photoshop, create a new document 14 x 14px size with transparent background.

2. Draw shape outline

Use the Pencil tool, select 1px brush from the palette. Pick a dark gray color and start drawing the outline of the page icon. To draw a straight line, first click at the starting point, then hold down shift key and click at the ending point.

Tips: At any time if you want to erase the pixels, use the Eraser tool, select Pencil mode and 1px brush size.

3. Base gradient

Make a selection of the empty cutout by the Magic Wand tool. Create a new layer. Set your foreground color to light gray and background to white. Use Gradient tool, drag from top corner to lower corner diagonally.